Kids believe what we tell them, but they're not stupid. As a society we tell kids many things about living healthy lives and following laws. And then, God help us, they see what we do.
Every kid since the beginning of the Drug War has grown up with strong warnings against all drugs, including marijuana, listed under the federal government's most dangerous tier of controlled substances. But this being Alaska, where per capita use rates have been among the highest in the U.S. for years, it doesn't take long to learn growing up here, as I did, that responsible, upstanding people from all walks of life use cannabis recreationally, even regularly. It's no secret that soft attitudes toward marijuana have existed in Alaska for a long time. They've softened so much recently that Alaska could become the third state to correct the messages we already send kids about marijuana while relatively more harmful substances remain legal and common.
Legalizing marijuana, it's said, would send the "wrong message" to kids. But we already tell kids things that go against what they see around them. All of those signals undercut the one thing everyone wants kids to hear: For your own sake, wait until adulthood to experiment with marijuana, or alcohol, and then use it responsibly.
A good deal of evidence points to greater harm being likely the younger someone begins heavy, regular pot use, or if they have a personal or family history of certain mental illnesses. But that's true with many substances. The effects of casual use that starts later among otherwise healthy people aren't as well understood. Most research in the past 20 years has focused on effects among adolescents and heavy users, a little like studying chronic inebriates and binge drinkers to learn the effects of an occasional post-work cocktail. Regular, heavy drug use is bad no matter what is being consumed, but the message to kids winds up being that abuse and use are the same thing when it comes to marijuana, but not alcohol.
Kids get other mixed messages, too. Ask any parent: It's practically impossible not to contradict yourself in front of kids. But the inconsistency is baked into the very laws we're supposed to follow, and the laws are broken by many, many Alaskans. Kids see inconsistent and inequitable enforcement, and even among their peers they see punishments that far outstrip the crime.
When kids encounter marijuana at school or elsewhere, they need to trust us when we tell them to avoid it until they're much older. But kids have plenty of access to it now, in part because the current system forces people to locate production in the home. A marijuana grow is much harder to secure than a small amount of pot. And that means marijuana is everywhere.
The apparent message to kids: Marijuana, though illegal, is OK as long as you treat it like an indoor gardening hobby.
Meanwhile, all of the exotic marijuana products -- the edibles, and concentrates that have caused so much fear -- are available in Alaska ... right this very moment. You just have to know which people to ask. And in many parts of the state, you have to bring a lot of money.
If post-drug-bust numbers from law enforcement are any gauge, marijuana can sell in some parts of Alaska for more than $1,800 per ounce, or $66 per gram, around six times what the same amount generally costs in Anchorage. Assuming we can trust police to know their local market, that kind of massive profit potential coupled with sparse legal oversight seems powerful motivation for unscrupulous people to abuse other individuals and a community.
As campaign materials from opponents of the initiative show, Colorado and Washington have provided many examples of problems Alaska should address in its rule-making process. The legislature should also consider amendments if Ballot Measure 2 passes, for instance a local option avenue for communities that want to prohibit its importation. But none of these problems are reasons to keep pursuing a failed policy of prohibition.
Dosages in edibles, packaging, advertising, limits of possession, intoxication tests for the road and workplace can all be addressed, while helping to root out persistent black markets. All those areas and other lessons learned represent a head start for Alaska to create its own regulatory framework, which is what passage of the measure will force the state to do.
The rule-making process that the initiative forces will provide opportunity for hashing out all these fears. And, contrary to the sincere fears of some commentators, the Alaska Constitution allows for modification: "An initiated law becomes effective 90 days after certification, is not subject to veto, and may not be repealed by the legislature within two years of its effective date. It may be amended at any time."
Provided that they're reasonable, those amendments will go through as long as they don't substantially change the intent or effect of the initiative, which is explicit: "To legalize, tax and regulate marijuana in Alaska." Pot users and aspiring entrepreneurs will agree to many reasonable restrictions because they'll be far better than risking arrest, probation, fine, property confiscation or incarceration.
The worst-case scenario is that we continue the current haphazard, counterproductive system, and this initiative is the best chance Alaska has seen yet to fix it. Voting yes will tell kids that we adults are committed to correcting a central hypocrisy of our state and national drug policy, and to making our words and deeds match -- something we'll expect of them when they become adults. They must feel our trust in each other before they'll feel it in themselves.
It is wrong to prosecute adults for possessing or using an intoxicating substance whose responsible use poses little risk to individuals relative to other currently legal substances, and whose well-regulated manufacture and sale would pose little risk to the communities that choose to allow it. But it is a disgrace to continue prosecuting laws against marijuana possession selectively and inconsistently as law enforcement authorities say they are now doing.
Lost in the discussion of law enforcement figures is that even a single adult who loses personal property or freedom, even temporarily, because of personal marijuana use or possession is one too many.
Our mixed messages and violations of individual rights in the pursuit of prohibition have created the modern legalization movement. If a great proportion of minority voters and young adults -- the biggest targets in the war on marijuana users -- don't turn out to vote on Nov. 4, the measure will likely fail. But nothing will change. Marijuana will still be freely available to every single person in Alaska, responsible adult or not. It will remain illegal, and law enforcement officers will still be making daily decisions about who will or won't be hassled. Middle-aged white guys on the Anchorage Hillside, for instance, will still be able to rest easy. Young people in Mountain View still won't.
If on Election Day some Alaskans find that a small amount of marijuana has -- according to state legal precedent -- magically appeared in the privacy of their own homes, they should feel free to indulge responsibly. But they had better not forget to vote.
Scott Woodham is an opinion pages editor for Alaska Dispatch News.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.